heres is an excellent article discussing a great website that exposes the abuse of power by the current administration--also included are a couple of articles that are great examples of a possible mo
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Government Secrecy Grows Under Bush Crime Family
Here is a website and a report that EVERYONE needs to check out:

Open The Government.org - Americans For Less Secrecy, More Democracy

It is entirely possible that the reader has NOT heard of this organization before, but, I can tell you that the report that they released should be on the reading list of every dedicated patriot in this country. Simply put, the USA has slowly become the USSA, and we are at the juncture where the Bush Crime Family has become the most secretive of all.

Considering that high-treason is the stock in trade of the current administration, none of this is terribly surprising, even though it remains highly disturbing to those of us who mourn what America once was, and not the AmeriKa we have turned into.

Download and read the following report (PDF file):

Open the Government.org - Secrecy Report Card 2005

Even though the report is only twelve pages long, it features information that is impossible to ignore.

Let us take a look, shall we?

PRIVATE ENTERPRISE (pg. 3)

124 New Patents Kept Secret, 4,885 “Secrecy Orders” in Effect

In 2004, the federal government closed the lid on 124 patents. Overall, that brings the total number of inventions kept under “secrecy orders” to 4,885.


CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS (pg. 3)

$148 Spent Creating New Secrets for Every $1 Spent Releasing Old Secrets

For every $1 the federal government spent in 2004 releasing old secrets, it spent an extraordinary $148 creating new secrets. That’s a $28 jump from 2003. In contrast, from 1997 to 2001, the government spent less than $20 per year keeping secrets for every dollar spent declassifying them.

15.6 Million Classification Decisions Costing $7.2 Billion

The government decided to stamp documents secret a record 15.6 million times in 2004. The U.S. government last year alone spent $7.2 billion securing its classified information. That’s more than any annual cost in at least a decade.

Every Choice to Classify Documents As Secret Costs Taxpayers $460

Every document classified cost the government $460 to secure that document plus its accumulated secrets.


FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (pg. 3)

The Public Made 4,080,737 Requests for Documents

In 2004, the public made over 4 million requests for information from government agencies, which is a 25 percent jump in overall requests from the previous year, despite only a 5 percent rise ( to $336.8 million) in spending on FOIA.


ONCE RARE "STATE SECRETS" PRIVILEGE USED 23 TIMES IN 4 YEARS (pg. 3)

The “state secrets” privilege allows the sitting U.S. president to nearly unilaterally withhold documents from the courts, Congress and the public. At the height of the Cold War, the administration used the privilege only 4 times between 1953 and 1976. Since 2001, it has been used 23 times.

These are just some of the findings of this report, and I urge all readers to read this report, as it is a sad indication of the POLICE-STATE MENTALITY of the Neo-CONS and the BUSH CRIME FAMILY.

posted by Kentroversy at 7:41 AM
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'My Pet Goat' -- The Sequel
This time, during a catastrophe, the president did not merely dither for seven minutes, but for three days, and his top advisors followed suit. While the media has done a good job in portraying the overall failure of leadership in this weeks hurricane's disaster, it has not focused enough on this deadly dereliction of duty.

By Greg Mitchell

(September 03, 2005) -- While a rising chorus in the press has taken the White House, FEMA and the Pentagon to task for performing miserably in their response to the human disaster on the Gulf Coast, few have focused on the most telling aspect of the entire failure. It’s not just incompetence. It’s a shameful lack of concern: The 9/11 “My Pet Goat” dithering on an administration-wide scale.

Simply stated, the president and his top advisers chose vacation over action.

While the media has done a good job in portraying the overall deadly failure of leadership, it has not focused enough on this deadly dereliction of duty.

President Bush, in his weekly radio address on Saturday, said: “In America, we do not abandon our fellow citizens in their hour of need.” But Bush, and his top aides, quite frankly, did just that.

I was reminded of this today, seeing pictures of Vice President Dick Cheney finally showing up at the White House after riding out the storm-of-the-century in Wyoming. Perhaps he brought back with him a couple dozen trout to throw on the grill for the White House staffers.

His absence, and the president’s performance during it, can only add to the rumors that Bush is clueless without the Big Guy at his side.

This follows Bush himself remaining on vacation for more than two days after the storm hit, despite acknowledging this was the worst disaster in the nation’s history. He did take a trip during those days, not back to Washington but out to San Diego to deliver a political speech comparing his Iraq war to World War II. It got little play because nearly everyone else in the country, beyond his inner circle, was focused on New Orleans instead.

What that trip did produce was a picture of Bush laughing with a country singer and strumming a guitar. But at least the president did start heading home late Wednesday. As he did, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was still enjoying her vacation in New York.

In fact, that night she enjoyed a few good yucks while attending the goofy Broadway play “Spamalot.” Ironically, the Bush team's performance this week did indeed seem like something out of a Monty Python skit. Each, in his or her own way, took a bunch of "silly walks."

Condi also played tennis with Monica Seles and on Thursday went on a shoe-shopping spree on Fifth Avenue until a fellow customer yelled at her for not doing her job and bloggers exposed all of this. Then she hurriedly headed back to Washington. Whoops, we discovered she was overdue in getting a grip on offers to help that were pouring in from overseas governments and organizations.

Paging Andrew Card: Turns out he was Bush's Maine man.

And what of FEMA chief Michael Brown? He was so out-of-it that he didn’t even know about 10,000 evacuees living and dying at the Convention Center, even after they had received wide TV coverage for hours and hours.

The next day, the president greeted him with, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." A medal is surely on the way. This from a president who has been fighting a "war on terror" in Iraq while appointing to the top FEMA position here at home a man whose main career experience was running an Arabian horse association.

At a press conference on Thursday, the fourth day of the disaster, with newspapers and TV reporting tens of thousands stranded at hospitals, homes and a highway overpass, Homeland Security chief Michael Cherotff was asked by a reporter if he thought only hundreds or maybe many more needed rescued. He replied:

“I'd be guessing. I mean, a thousand seems like a very large number, but we have already rescued several thousand. Hopefully, most people have gotten themselves onto roofs and have been picked up. But, as I said, rather than give you a guesstimate, I can tell you that as long as there is someone on a roof waving a flag, we're going to be sending a helicopter out there to get them.”

At the same press briefing, Cherotff was asked if he thought there were enough soldiers on the ground to control the situation. His answer: “I'm satisfied that we have not only more than enough forces there and on the way. And frankly, what we're doing is we are putting probably more than we need in order to send an unambiguous message that we will not tolerate lawlessness or violence or interference with the evacuation.”

While the 9/11 “My Pet Goat” episode was certainly illuminating, it’s not certain what might have worked out better that day had the president dropped the book and taken action. But his failure to grab the reins in the hurricane catastrophe for three days this week probably doomed hundreds, or more, to death.

This is not mere incompetence, but dereliction of duty. The press should call it by its proper name.link

Interesting read, thanks.

Freedom isn't free, don't shush me....

Interesting stuff. Especially the quote above..

Another great post Sunofone!

The weapon of the dictator is not so much propaganda as censorship.
-- Terence H. Qualter, Propaganda and Psychological Warfare, 1962

"We live in a dirty and dangerous world. There are some things the general public does not need to know, and shouldn't. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows."
--Katherine Graham, owner and former publisher of The Washington Post speech to CIA recruits in 1988

I'm pretty much at the same understanding of how the world actually works as you are. This is no surprise to me. I can't believe people still love Bush.

I agree with you guys, Scoobly/Sunafone.

You 2 always have lots of evidence to support what you are saying.
And as always sunafone very well put together. Of course A skeptic (who can not for some reason be skeptic of anything the gov. does or things they KNOW ) will come in and say
"no you are wrong, because that isnt true."

You guys really have turned the tide from Blind believer to Blind skeptic.

Keep up the good work.
Mabey you'll even wake a few of em.

Secrets are NEVER good in a democracy...

democracy= rule by the people, for the people
if you are keeping secrets from the general public, then you are, in effect, taking away power from the people who are supposed to have control of it.

Which, of course, is evil.

My business law professor says A-merika instead of america. It started out as a joke on B Bush. Now people are saying it all over the media and politics.... maybe to display loyalty... maybe its a masonic magic practice that every involved mason is having to support in order to strengthen bush's (illuminati) agenda.

He is in a room of three hundred students. I think he actually got worried after he said it that somebody might catch on, b.c he studdered during his thought transition.

or this could all mean nothing.

but it is a neat cowinkydink.

dont you wish we could give this information to the press

I think that there is a time and place for secrets in the goverment.

Things like technology that give us an edge in combat, or military plans for attack; that kind of sensitive material.

For the most part though the government needs to be an open book, able to be seen by every citizen so that those in charge can be held responsible for the decisions they make and the money they spend.

In my opinion the members of the US government (past and present) have continually moved away from serving the greatest good of the public they serve to working harder at protecting themselves and ensuring their own financial success.

It seems that those who represent us have made it their primary goal to create their own job security at our expense.

Our government has gotten out of our hands, and has been out of control for a very very long time; it contunies to grow worse. Only millionaires with many connections can get into any high level elected position and use that position in order to secure more money and more power.

It is sad...